Jo's Pasta Bake

I wouldn't normally eat high cheese high carby food, but this was really to use up some leftovers in the fridge (tapenade, stale bread, leftover lentils and olives). Plus we didn't have many veggies in the fridge.... So.... Jo's pasta bake was born. I made it a bit more healthy by adding lentils, brown pasta instead of white, and loading it with vegetables. And best of all it was actually really yum! The quantities and ingredients are really flexible, so take the opportunity to use up some things in your fridge. Some ideas are: pesto, olives, sundried tomatoes, capsicums, carrots, mushrooms, courgettes....

Ingredients:

- 670 jar passata (or equivalent in cans of tomatoes)
- 1 onion (I actually didn't use an onion, as didn't have one)
- Handful of olives, pipped and halved (I used kalamata).
- About 1 cup cooked lentils (I used red, but I think any would do)
- 4-5 semi-dried tomatoes, chopped
- About 1/4 capsicum, chopped
- Big pile of leaves (I used spinach and beetroot leaves, but you could prob use silverbeet, kale, other)
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 2 medium cloves garlic or 1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
- 1 teaspoon chilli tapenade (optional)
- Fresh herbs (I used oregano, but you could use basil, parsley)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups wholemeal penne pasta, boiled until aldente
- 3 slices bread, chopped finely. (I used stale vogels)
- Roughly 1.5 cups grated cheese

Preheat oven to 200 degrees (celsius). If you are using an onion, saute that first in a pot. Then put everything else except penne, bread and cheese in the pot, bring to the boil, then simmer until leaves have softened. (Only takes about 10 minutes). Then mix in cooked pasta. Turn off heat.
In a medium sized dish, put about half the pasta mix. Then half bread, and half the cheese. Then put the remaining pasta mix, followed by the remaining bread and cheese.
Bake at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. Yum.